More Details On BBOTT Season From Executive Producers

We’ve already learned about some of the new twists and changes for Big Brother Over the Top but now we’ve got more details from executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan on just how this BBOTT season will work.

Big Brother Over The Top

One of the things we’ve seen in the BBOTT schedule and wondered about was the “Safety Ceremony” which starts a day before the nominations are revealed and now we have more details on that. The EPs also discuss how live competitions will work, picking the two wildcards, and cleaning out that disgusting house in a few short days.

With the focus of the series shifting away from hour to fit things down to three hours of CBS TV and now becoming how to fill 7 days of Feeds there were going to be some changes. One of the first is how the nominations are played out, or rather how they’re drawn out. Speaking with Yahoo! TV, Grodner and Meehan shared some insight there.

So the safety ceremony is a play on nomination that plays out over a longer period of time so that people can tune in more often to find out who is safe over the course of a couple days. As opposed to everything happening in one moment at the nomination ceremony, which is over really quickly, this is something that’s going to play out over a couple days — ending with the two people that will be nominated for eviction.

Remember how HGs would lose the backyard for days at a time? Well that’s gone, or at least it’ll be greatly reduced for BBOTT:

We anticipate there being more access to the yard on a daily basis — whereas on the broadcast version sometimes they would get locked down for four days at a time while we build these big, epic challenges in the backyard, and it kind of can mess their clock up because they’re never outside.

We think with them being able to have more access outside, hopefully they can keep a more normal schedule so they are awake when people are watching the feeds and they aren’t sleeping all day.

If the comps aren’t going to be those massive, backyard takeovers then this could be a significant change from what we’re used to seeing. And remember there are no blackouts this season on the Live Feeds so we’ll see things happen in the moment instead of airing four days later on CBS. Meehan explains:

Because everything is live you know things can play out over a longer period of time, so we can have competitions that you can watch hour by hour. And because [the competitions] are live, when we develop those challenges they have to be able to stand on their own and have the Head of Household be able to host, so they’re going to be less complicated. They’re going to play out longer and they’re going to be different.

While I love the idea of no more blackouts, the idea that these comps which will be held at MIDNIGHT (!) ET will “play out… longer” and “you can watch hour by hour” sounds awful. If they’re going to have these things run so long why bury them in the middle of the night? Why not hold evictions live on Wednesday night and HoH comps the next day when people are awake to see it? Blerg.

Meet the Big Brother Over The Top Cast (gallery & bios)

Jumping over to another twist of the season with the returning players, either Jason Roy or Jozea Flores, Grodner explained how they came to choose those two options.

We were looking for two standout personalities that were gone early in the game that didn’t get to jury, quite, from recent seasons… They are over-the-top personalities who didn’t stay too long to amass a big [fan following].

Neither stayed too long, but when it comes to a popular vote Jason definitely had the edge for building up a fanbase to help vote him back in. If we’re going to do Vets then might as well let them both back in, but I doubt that’ll happen.

Finally, while I think it’d be best to burn it to the ground each season and start over that’s clearly not an option especially when there’s just a few days between seasons. But they at least cleaned it, right? I mean really, really cleaned it, right? Grodner says it’s fresh and clean at least down to the mattresses. Pro-tip, BBOTT HGs, avoid Paulie’s old bed.

I will assure you that we did the same amount of cleaning that we do every year. We definitely came in and scrubbed it from top to bottom. There are new linens, new sheets, new mattress covers, all of that. The floors were scrubbed, [new] pots and pans, all of that. So yes, rest assured we are not putting our next group of houseguests in any kind of germ danger.

Considering how much of the house is the same (check out the new BBOTT House photo gallery) I’m sure we’re not getting the same level of fresh and clean as they do between seasons, but I doubt there’s anything besides an army of ants waiting to dominate the HGs’ new home.

Check out the new BBOTT House design (gallery)

We’ll learn even more about the new Big Brother series with tonight’s premiere so be sure you’re signed up and ready for All Access so you can watch. We’ll be back again this season with all our Big Brother coverage so stick with us for 65 days of BBOTT fun!

Source: Yahoo! TV

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8 Comments

  1. New linens, sheets, and mattress covers? How about new mattresses? If they don’t want a bunch of little Corey’s running around next year, they better just burn the corner bed mattress.

  2. “(Jason and Jozea) are over-the-top personalities who didn’t stay too long to amass a big [fan following].”

    Okay, I get Jason, but Jozea – freakin’ JOZEA – has “amassed a big fan following”???? Once again, Grodner proves her ignorance of what the fans of this show are actually thinking. First the BOB makes a disastrous comeback and now she thinks Jozea is popular????

  3. So the safety ceremony may be like the pulling the keys out of the box thing, just prolonged over a couple of days. That’s my guess. If it’s true then it seems like there could be some interesting strategical implications as people try not to give away their alliances, or keep other players dangling to try to leverage deals. I see that working to Scott’s advantage, since he specifically mentioned trying to use power for leverage, and maybe some of the smarter recruits. I think it might throw off the superfans though.

    • I agree Pelican. This new Safety deal is probably the biggest hinge this season. Like you said, it could really make things interesting.

  4. They said nothing about getting rid of the ants. Doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to do, maybe they like to torture the house guests?

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